


won't you tie me down for good

by usoverlooked



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 16:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2117523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usoverlooked/pseuds/usoverlooked
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Which of these two characters will live happily ever after? And will they actually be in love in the sense that you can picture them 20 years from now in a grocery store arguing about cereal?" </p>
<p>Jeff, Britta and twenty years of summers</p>
            </blockquote>





	won't you tie me down for good

**Author's Note:**

  * For [easternepiphany](https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternepiphany/gifts).



> FOR KATE WHO IS TURNING 25 AND IS MY FAVORITE LADY IN THE GALAXY. Happy birthday darling, I hope it's as amazing as you are! Also, I hope you enjoy this and the fact that I open with one of the most important quotes ever related to this show or any show ever.

_**"It’s not a will-they-or-won’t-they with two characters who you know eventually will, it’s: Which of these two characters will live happily ever after? And will they actually be in love in the sense that you can picture them 20 years from now in a grocery store arguing about cereal?" -Dan Harmon** _

 

 

 

 

 

0

After Jeff graduates – and Pierce graduates – the group has one of those summers. The memorable kind that inspires movies. Troy gets a job as a coach for a summer football team and it takes up a lot of his time. Annie starts dating a veterinarian, who is very cute and neuters one of Britta’s cats at a discount. Britta gets a job at a bar – not L Street, one called Pokey’s – and actually proves to be pretty good at bartending.

They all coordinate a day off and go to a water park on the outskirts of Denver with Shirley’s kids. Pierce doesn’t go, starts in on a story about how his church doesn’t believe in standing water. He gets most of the way finished before Annie cuts him off by shouting about gas money.

When they get there, Elijah takes off with a friend he brought before the rest even set their bags down. They end up taking up one area of the sun chairs, their belongings strewn across them. Annie, Troy and Abed take off for the slides – with Jordan in tow. Shirley takes Ben towards the kiddie area. Jeff turns to Britta, who is digging in her hugely oversized bag for something. She pulls a bottle of sunscreen out.

“You want help with that?” He asks, adds a leer just for her. She glares or at least, even takes off her sunglasses so he knows that she is. He grins, proud. She flips him off before shoving the sunscreen at him.

“I’m going to go on the lazy river,” she says as he smacks a handful of sunscreen onto her back. Her shoulders jerk up to her ears at the cold of it. “Ass.”

“Do you want me to go with you, make sure no twelve year olds hit on you?” He asks, rubbing sunscreen onto her shoulders. She leans her head back to give him a look for that and her head leans on his chest for a moment.

Britta squints at him for a moment, deciding something. “Fine, do what you want.”

So he claps the rest of the sunscreen onto her boob and tries to walk away. She shrieks and runs after him. They get kicked out of the park for running, cussing in very loud voices in front of children and Britta pulling his swim trunks down.

They end up making out in the bed of Troy’s truck until the rest of the group decides to leave. They’re in different cars for the ride back – Jeff rode with Shirley and the kids, Britta with the younger trio.

Her phone buzzes about five minutes into the trip. It’s from Jeff and simply reads: “So.”

She smiles at her phone and replies: “Yeah. So.”

And just like that, they’re something again.

 

 

1

Britta graduates on a sunny June afternoon from Greendale with “Dean’s Honorable Mentioning Certificate”, whatever that is. Shirley gets valedictorian, which meant that most of the last semester consisted of her and Annie exchanging barbs and then crying about friendship in equal measure. It also meant that Britta spent a lot of time text Jeff a running commentary.

Shirley asks what Tyler, the vet, got Annie for graduation. Annie blushes and reveals earrings that are, well, pretty. When Shirley turns to Britta and asks the same question about Jeff, Britta blanches.

“He helped talk my manager into giving me an extra night off this weekend,” she says slowly. The other two wait a beat before cooing about how sweet that is.

Later, when she’s curled on Jeff’s couch with a container of Thai food in the crook of her elbow, the conversation with Shirley niggles at her. She sits up, causing Jeff to tear his attention from _America’s Next Top Model_.

“Are we a couple?” She asks, point blank. Jeff stares at her, chewing on a bite of something. She sets her food down. “I mean, my lease is up in a few months and you said I could just stay here, but also if we aren’t a couple that’s, it’s fine.”

“Sure,” Jeff says, which is so confusingly Jeff. Britta glares at him, spears a piece of chicken on her fork and waits. Jeff sighs, rolls his eyes. “Look, I’m willing to live with you and your cats, we’re something, alright?”

“Yeah,” she answers. Her cool attitude is betrayed by the corners of her mouth, tugging up. Jeff watches that and turns back to the television.

“I’m still not buying tampons,” he comments. Britta elbows him.

 

 

2

Britta gets a job at a high school as a counselor and a summer gig as a group therapy consultant in the same school’s art room. Both of the jobs have crap pay and sometimes crap work, but the school pays for her to take classes at a real university online to get her master’s degree. Also, she mostly loves it, especially since Troy coaches football there – with practices during the summer even - and so she has someone to eat lunch with.

Jeff takes the summer to study for the bar exam – which he has failed once, and then refused to take for nearly a year. Of course, this means, he spends most of his time going through his and Britta’s movie collection, watching the entirety of both _Lost_ and _Fringe_ , and adopting a flop-eared dog that quickly earns the name Gertie. It works, mostly, them living together with two cats and a dog that only runs into the coffee table on days that end in a y. Except, with only Britta working, they end up pretty broke.

“If you fail the bar this time, will you marry some rich old lady so we don’t have to live like this?” Britta asks. Their main hardship was cancelling cable and losing E! and ABC Family, which meant half their drinking show games were gone.

“No,” Jeff says, rather gruff. He pulls a beer from the fridge – their other hardship is going to the Trader Joe’s in Aurora for cheap booze rather than the bar. He pops the lid off and ignores Britta inquisitive look. “I don’t want to get married to anyone.”

He shuts his mouth too quickly at the end of the statement, like there was almost one more word there. Like he almost said ‘anyone else’. If they were different people, Britta would let it go. Instead, she grins, raises her eyebrows. The grin could be called shit-eating, it’s _that_ wide.

“Shut up,” Jeff says, eventually. Britta shakes her head and he rolls his eyes. “I know, just, _shut up_.”

 

 

5

Between the two of them, they save enough to buy a house. Instead, they spring for a hot air balloon. Shirley’s face turns a funny shade of red when they tell her. The thing is, Jeff has claimed for many years that he managed a threesome in an air balloon and for as many years, Britta has doubted him, mostly on the ability of one to even have sex in a hot air balloon. As they prove (and prove again, and again), it is quite possible. Jeff gleefully tells Shirley this and she smacks him with her purse.

They also write wills – Jeff leaves everything to either Britta or Shirley, while Britta gives everything to charity except her cats, Gertie and a few knickknacks that she bequeaths to Jeff.

“We’re old,” Britta declares as their lawyer hands the legal documents that name each other as beneficiaries back to them. She reconsiders, nudges him with her elbow. “ _You’re_ old.”

“Whatever, you’re the one who eats that Jamie Lee Curtis yogurt,” he counters.

“Okay, you’re the one who left the Rogaine site up on the laptop last week,” Britta says, sounding quite proud. Before Jeff can counter, their lawyer laughs. They both look up, suddenly reminded of her presence.

“You sound like a sitcom. How long have you guys been married?” She asks, sounding quite cheerful about the matter. Jeff and Britta exchange a glance.

“Amanda, in case the absence of a ring didn’t enlighten you, we aren’t,” Jeff says. He’s allowed to be a little mean to Amanda, who had sat next to him for the bar exam and teased him about his shoes.

“Common law marriage, Winger,” Amanda counters, smiling. She stands and nods to the door. Britta’s too shocked to protest. They make it as far as the elevator before Britta punches him in the arm.

“You’re a goddamn lawyer and you didn’t know about common law marriage?” The question is half-accusation and half-question. It’s fully shrieking though and Jeff almost laughs at that, until Britta hits his arm again.

“Geez, Britta, I knew, I just didn’t care,” he manages, trying to turn so she can’t smack him anymore. He sees her deflate a little in the reflection on the elevator door. He sighs. “Look, it’s not a real wedding, but it’s something and I was just fine with it.”

Britta crosses her arms and Jeff turns back to her. “If you want a common law divorce…”

He trails off. Somehow, that makes Britta perk up a little, her shoulder losing some of their droop. She shrugs.

“I mean, this way you’d get custody of the cats if I die or whatever,” she says. Then, she smiles. “Oh, does this mean you can just file my taxes for me?”

“Nope,” he replies.

He does anyways, that next April.

 

 

7

Jeff gets a case that involves company in China. Britta googles, finds a job at a school in Shanghai, but realizes that there’s a language requirement and somehow two years of Spanish at a community college don’t seem to be enough. Plus, they would lose the lease on the apartment and there’s Gertie and the one lonely cat (one died after escaping into the Colorado winter for a week, though it had returned long enough to throw up in two different pairs of Jeff’s shoes). So Jeff goes to China, for a job that’s supposed to last from April till October. He ends up getting done by August.

“Apparently, I get stuff done really fast when I don’t have someone texting me emoji descriptions of movies every hour,” Jeff says, as the gang greets him at the airport. Shirley takes the chance to explain to Pierce what emojis are, while Abed clicks his tongue at Jeff.

“Annie’s pregnant,” Troy bursts. Jeff turns to the girl in question, who is grinning under Troy’s arm.

(The veterinarian had moved to a town outside Los Angeles. Annie was mostly fine, especially after Troy had watched seven romcoms with her after the break-up before frantically texting Britta for advice on ‘what if I LIKE LIKE ANNIE because I MIGHT BE DOING THAT???’ Of course, he had accidentally sent the text to Annie, so they got married about four months later. It was ridiculous and charming, both Britta and Jeff had given wonderfully drunken speeches at the wedding.)

“Congrats,” he says, the thought genuine. Annie’s smile is crazy wide and for a second, he remembers why he had that thing with her for most of their time at Greendale. There’s something bright about her. Then, she starts in on the baby’s room – which is apparently already decorated – and he remembers why it never would have worked.

Britta’s quiet on the ride home, even leaves the radio off.

“Do you want kids?” She asks, pulling the car into their spot in the parking lot. Jeff stares at her. She’s fiddling with something on the key ring, refusing to look up at him. She asked him that once, a lifetime ago.

“I don’t know,” he answers. “Put on something nice and find me after dinner.”

He answered that once, a lifetime ago. This time it means something else. Britta turns to him, eyebrows up like she doesn’t know if he’s joking. He shrugs, because he’s not entirely sure himself.

“Okay,” she says. Then, she smacks her thigh, breaking the mood. “Let’s go have ‘you just got back from a foreign country’ sex.”

 

 

9

They end up moving into a tiny house on the outskirts of Denver for Britta’s new job. Jeff’s dad dies. Britta’s parents find them and meet Jeff. All in all, June sucks.

“Let’s just drive somewhere,” Britta says, two minutes after the door shuts behind her parents. Jeff nods, pulls the duffel bags down from a closet. Britta packs the cat up in a carrier and calls Annie to arrange for them to take Gertie for a few weeks. They drive to New Mexico, stop in Carlsbad Caverns.

“We couldn’t do this if we had kids,” Jeff points out. It’s a conversation they’ve never finished. “Although, we _could_ go to Disney World and pit them against the Barnes’s.”

“Yeah,” Britta answers, to both of them really. She leans back against him for a moment. “Want to buy a tent and find some hippies with weed?”

“God, do I,” he says.

 

 

10

Britta gets two new kittens. They name them Troy and Abed, much to everyone’s amusement. Gertie has to be put down and Jeff takes a day off work and drinks scotch.

“Let’s have a kid,” he says, two days later. Britta stares at him, trying to figure out how to inform him that the proper response to your dog dying isn’t having a baby. Instead, she shrugs.

“If you can knock me up at this age, sure,” she says. He rolls his eyes.

“You’re barely forty. I’m very virile,” he says, then winks. Britta mimes puking.

“Never mind, I take it all back,” she says, only mostly teasing.

By the end of the summer, Shirley’s throwing a baby shower. It’s for Annie, but Britta’s only slightly bitter. Shirley touches her arm, promises that God will provide. Britta somehow finds herself rather thankful she’s not pregnant then – at least she can drink.

The night after the baby shower, Britta rolls onto her side to face Jeff. He’s nearly asleep, but reaches one hand over to drop onto her hair. It’s almost loving, until he shoves the hair in her face.

“Ass,” she says, but it’s a knee-jerk reaction, habit more than anything. Jeff grins.

“S’okay if we don’t have a kid. We’d probably name it Shirley or something, anyways. It’d be bad,” he says, voice drowsy. Britta doesn’t say anything to that. She kisses Jeff cheek though, which says more than enough.

15

Abed makes a movie and it goes to Sundance. Britta and Jeff spend most of the July after that rewatching the Community College Chronicles – which are in talks to be remade with some former Disney star.

“He always knew,” Britta points out, after a few too many beers. Jeff laughs.

“His other predictions included a werewolf, Shirley getting a tattoo and _Annie_ crying at the new _Star Wars_ ,” Jeff counters. She snorts at that, then covers her laugh with her hand. Jeff turns to her, considers. “Wait, did those things happen?”

“I can confirm that at least one of them did,” she says, still laughing. Jeff blinks at her.

“Please tell me it’s the werewolf,” he says, which sends her into another peal of laughter.

 

 

18

Ben graduates from college. They all have to go, to a graduation at a real college – Colorado Mesa, go Mavericks. Shirley cries through the whole thing, despite both of her other boys doing the same thing years before.

“Do you ever think about if any of us had gone to a college like this we wouldn’t be who we are?” Britta asks as they drive back after the ceremony. Jeff rolls his eyes and she flicks his ear. “Shut up, and don’t say I sound like Abed.”

“Well, you _do_ ,” he says, earning another ear flick. He laughs. “Who knows, maybe we would’ve found each other.”

“Oh?” She says, the word almost an exhalation rather than an actual question. Jeff shrugs.

“Sure, that’s what happened in _Lost_ , I think. We would all just find each other in an airport, or the afterlife, whatever,” he says. Britta smiles, leans over to him.

“You didn’t say ‘all’ the first time. You got romantic there for a second, Winger,” she teases. Jeff swerves the car a little so she falls into his arm. She’s still grinning when she flops back into her own seat. “Whatever, deny it. We both know the truth.”

He ends up carrying her in from the car that night after she falls asleep to the oldies radio.

 

 

20

Jeff’s hair is totally grey. It looks good, which is mostly why Britta teases him endlessly about it. Her own hair is beginning to turn, stripes of it making it known that they plan to take over the rest of her head soon. For her, it seems more natural somehow.

She’s teasing him about it at a Trader Joe’s when he starts in on her having to get bifocals. Somehow it devolves into her yelling about how she doesn’t like Special K cereal just because she’s a girl.

“It has berries, _that’s_ why I like it,” she insists as he starts to put some Raisin Bran in their cart. “And, I thought we were switching to organic when we could – and with _cereal_ , we can.”

“Oh, I’m _so_ sure that your precious Miss Special K Berry Brunch is organic,” he counters. She makes a face.

“That is _not_ what it’s called and you can’t get Reese’s cereal, you old fogie,” she practically screams this.

Before Jeff can counter, a nervous looking manager asks them to leave. They make the biggest scene they can as they leave, including Britta grabbing one bar of weird chocolate before scurrying out the doors, to the car. They have to pull over after a block because they’re both laughing so hard.

“So,” he says, raising his eyebrows at the chocolate bar, questioning. She clutches it to her chest.

“So,” she replies.

 

**Author's Note:**

> FIND ME ON TUMBLR @MASONJO I AM ALWAYS DOWN TO TALK JEFF/BRITTA YOU GUYS.  
> ALSO ONCE AGAIN. LOVE U KATE.


End file.
